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Clinton Bloc Becomes the Prize for Election Day

The audience at a rally for Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton in Beaumont, Tex., on the eve of the primary there in March.Credit
Todd Heisler/The New York Times

Now that a would-be first female president is ending her quest for the White House, the race is more about women than ever before.

With Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s ending her campaign for the Democratic nomination, the presumptive nominees are moving to claim her followers, especially her signature bloc, the millions of women who cast primary votes for her.

Senator Barack Obama’s campaign is positioning itself as the rightful heir to these Democratic voters. Senator John McCain’s strategists are plotting to convert them, particularly older women who are skeptical of Mr. Obama’s thin résumé. Even the Democratic National Committee chairman is avidly trying to make up for accusations that he allowed sexism in the race to pass unchallenged.

“The wounds of sexism need to be the subject of a national discussion,” the chairman, Howard Dean, said in an interview. “Many of the most prominent people on TV behaved like middle schoolers” toward Mrs. Clinton.

Many Clinton voters say that she will remain their leader, that she has created a lasting female constituency, a women’s electoral movement unlike any other. So with Mrs. Clinton ready to endorse Mr. Obama in a speech on Saturday, the vanquished candidate faces her first postcampaign test. Can she pivot millions of supporters in the direction of Mr. Obama, the candidate she just stopped denigrating?

“I don’t know any Hillary or feminist supporter who isn’t going to support Obama,” said Gloria Steinem, adding, however, that a stray few may write in Mrs. Clinton’s name on the November ballot.

The question, Ms. Steinem said, is the degree of support these followers will offer Mr. Obama, whether they will merely pull levers for him or apply some of the vast energy and generosity they did for Mrs. Clinton.

Not everyone agrees.

Cynthia Ubaldo, 44, a Clinton supporter in Columbus, Ohio, just switched her registration from Democratic to independent and donated $10 to Mr. McCain. The endorsement on Saturday is a mandatory, empty gesture, Ms. Ubaldo said.

“I’m sure Hillary’s cussing Obama out to Bill and Chelsea as we speak,” she said.

Many of Mrs. Clinton’s female supporters have shared a metaphor to describe letting go of her candidacy. They say they are grieving. They admit shedding tears. And they refer to stages like “denial,” “anger” and “acceptance.”

In keeping with this close bond, many supporters say they are less likely to transfer this heartfelt allegiance to Mr. Obama than to follow their hero’s cues.

The 350,000 e-mail messages that Mrs. Clinton received after soliciting supporters on Tuesday include “an overwhelming chorus of ‘We want you to continue to be our leader,’ ” said Ann Lewis, a Clinton adviser.

Beth Dozoretz, a top donor who said she knows and likes Mr. Obama, said, “Hillary is going to be helpful to him, and I’m going to help her be helpful to him.”

Many Clinton supporters say they will not be able to make their peace with the Obama nomination until they know Mrs. Clinton’s role on the ticket, in the campaign and in the party. Because Mr. Obama is unlikely to settle on a running mate right away, the question will remain unsettled for some time.

“It’s going to take more than a speech saying that Hillary has made great strides and that will help his children,” said Deborah Larkin, another longtime Clinton donor, referring to Mr. Obama’s comments on Tuesday night.

A classic stage of grief is bargaining, and just as Mrs. Clinton has surely been thinking about what she wants to extract from her run, her supporters have been making their own wish lists. The most popular item, with many online petition signatures behind it, is a spot on Mr. Obama’s ticket.

If he does not offer the vice-presidential position to Mrs. Clinton, “I’m going to be really angry,” said Alida Black, another longtime Clinton supporter.

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“Hillary is not interchangeable,” Ms. Black added, warning Mr. Obama not to select, say, Gov. Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas as a gesture to please women.

Some Clinton supporters have other priorities. “I don’t see the vice presidency as a very exciting thing,” said Nancy White, 69, of Bloomington, Ind., who would prefer for Mrs. Clinton to return to the Senate to aid Mr. Obama on health care and other issues.

Former Gov. Madeleine M. Kunin of Vermont suggested in an interview that Mr. Obama promise to appoint women to half his cabinet positions.

When Mr. Dean reached out to Cynthia Ruccia, who started an organization of female Clinton swing-state voters threatening to vote for Mr. McCain, Ms. Ruccia asked that the Democratic convention include a symbolic first ballot for Mrs. Clinton’s delegates. Mr. Dean discouraged the idea on the grounds of unity.

He has belatedly recognized the cries of sexism, Mr. Dean said, particularly when a friend showed him a video compilation of broadcasters’ comments about Mrs. Clinton.

“We all get over it when our candidates don’t win,” he said. “What you don’t get over is feeling like you’ve been insulted by some of the leading institutions in America and no one said anything about it.”

For decades, women have been more likely to identify as Democrats than Republicans. This year, 44 percent of women have identified themselves in polls by The New York Times or CBS News as Democrats, 26 percent as Republicans and 24 percent independents.

Mr. McCain has recently beckoned to frustrated Clinton supporters in his speeches. A campaign tour reaching out to them, as well as independent female voters, is imminent, aides said.

For Ms. Ubaldo, the Clinton supporter who switched registration and donated to Mr. McCain, the Republican nominee is not so much a protest choice as an appealing alternative.

“This guy is not a conservative,” said Ms. Ubaldo, who does not have health insurance but does have a subprime mortgage.

The Obama campaign will fight back, after waiting a respectful beat or two. In conversations with Mr. Obama and his aides, “I’ve tried to make sure that everyone understood that these women have a right to feel frustrated and angry,” said Senator Claire McCaskill of Missouri, an important ally who is one of his leading emissaries to women. “To try to make that less than real is a huge mistake.”

As he declared himself the nominee on Tuesday, Mr. Obama cut a particularly woman-friendly figure on stage, dedicating his speech to his grandmother and affectionately bumping fists with his wife, Michelle.

Indeed, descriptions of those women, along with his mother and daughters, will be regular features of Mr. Obama’s speeches, Ms. Sebelius said. Women will ultimately choose Mr. Obama not because of symbolic overtures, she added, but because of his stances on health care, the economy and education, areas where his positions closely resemble Mrs. Clinton’s.

The key, Ms. McCaskill said, is approaching Mrs. Clinton’s supporters with utmost humility. And, Ms. Backus added, that is not always the strongest suit of the young people who are some of Mr. Obama’s most enthusiastic supporters.

“Not nyeh nyeh nyeh nyeh,” Ms. McCaskill said, making a taunting sound. “We need them very, very badly, and we shouldn’t be able to be afraid to say that we need them.”

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A9 of the New York edition with the headline: Clinton Bloc Becomes The Prize For Nov. 4. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe